The Joker(s)

I'm currently in the middle of watching the 1989 Batman film starring Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton. I've got to say that this movie is one of my favorite of the Batman films and Batman is my favorite superhero period. The way Nicholson portrayed the Joker is very different than Heath Ledger's portrayal but they are both very good and both give their own spin on the character.

Rather than mimick Jack Nicholson, Ledger made the Joker his own and made it a far more dark and dirty kind of Joker compared to Nicholson's clean, and light hearted-yet still evil-version. There are two very different Jokers and I think as a whole, each actor that portrays the Joker, whither in film, television show or cartoon, they all bring something to the table that makes the Joker unique. We don't really know who the Joker is, and there isn't one particular Joker to be compared to. The Joker is just a psychotic clown that kills for pleasure and each actory portraying him adds some flavor to this role. I'll now focus on the characters and how each one made this super villian unique in the Batman series.

First off, let's look at Cesar Romero, the Joker that we've all come to love from the classic 1960s Batman series. He is just one happy camper throughout the series. Yes, he is evil in the end as are all the Jokers, but he makes it fun and we as the view don't have to know anything to this character other than the fact that he is a criminal and wants to see Batman and Robin burn to the ground. That's it. Oh, and the fact that he love to laugh and jump around. He brought fun to the character.

Jack Nicholson on the other hand, was just a member of the mob of Gotham City and happened to fall in this acid that pracitcally made him go crazy. Being set up by his boss, he was on a mission of revenge while at the same time laughing at everything bad that happened to people for his own pleasure. Yes, he was very funny but also had an agenda that was to distroy Batman and the rest of the goonies once and for all so he could come up with his own organization of crime and murder. I personally found him to be great because his character changes so much from when we first see him in the beginning of the film, as someone who is just a bored mob goon and then turns into this happy-go-lucky kind of dude who just has a kick out of death and destruction. This was also the first and only on-screen transformation of the Joker in the entire franchise, which makes it all the more unique.

And finally, we come to probably the most popular Joker in the entire franchise, Heath Ledger's portrayal of the the character in The Dark Knight. This Joker is by far the darkest there is and ever will be. He really brings out the disturbed and fucked-up side of the Joker in this movie. Not only is his clothes messed up and dirty, compared to the way it's portrayed in every other production, but he also gives a little back story to how he got his scars, if several back stories. He actually gives the time to explain how he gets these scars on his body and it's hard to know what the truth was as to how he got them. He leaves it up to the viewer, which makes you wonder how sick his little fucked up mind is.

All in all, each Joker is great and together they fill out the entire character.